90X45X45 finally.....

[adipnayak]

hi there,
finally got my tank up and runing after near 4 months of not being able to find any of the substrate or plants in my region.
Thanks to SLS Malaysia for the support Mr Tan & Joseph are truly the bestestt...lol
so here it is..
TetratecEX600 external filter
ADA substrate Amazonia II powder & pellets 1 bag each (Wasnt enough to get the kind of slope i wanted but for what the shipping etc cost me i think its worth every penny)
Hairgrass both normal & japenese on the foreground
Vivipara in the Bg
As i was alone & my first setup took me the entire afternoon to set this up will setup the lights and the sera co2 tom and update with more pics.
hope you like...




After Planting:


Am waiting for the tank to clear up have upped the water and setup the filter will wait a bit more otherwise pics tom...
Critiqs pls....

[Jur4ik]

I´m not happy with the stone arrangement but now it is too late to move them strongly.
so just let it grow and look how it will fill in. good luck

[adipnayak]

what would you have done differently??

[John N.]

I actually like the current stone arrangement. However, I undestand that there always could be improvements to it such as stronger sense of visual lines, especially between the two main rocks. Right now I see two parallel lines between these stones. I would like to see instead a possible V-formation to bring a sense of strength, and grounding to the scape.

-John N.

[Alex Weisletten]

Dumb questions, are those rocks real? or concerete molds? crazy detail on them.

[Jur4ik]

Must be real, the best is to ask in the store where you have bought them.

It is allways the same with the stone position - 20 people and 20 different opinions.
In my opinion you can copy other scapes or try to find your own style.

[Jur4ik]

Originally Posted by Alex Weisletten

Dumb questions, are those rocks real? or concerete molds? crazy detail on them.

Must be real, some of them look like manten, others I dont know ..

Originally Posted by adipnayak

what would you have done differently??

It is allways the same with the stone position - 20 people and 20 different opinions.
In my opinion you can copy other scapes or try to find your own style.
Difficult to say what I would have done exactly different, just felt unhappy
As John said, a V-formation maybe ..

[adipnayak]

hi there thankyou all for your replies. i will start setting up the CO2 in a bit and the lights and then will click some pics to upload. Want to plant javamoss in the valley between the rocks. Any ideas on how do i do it? I could sandwich them between a mesh any other ideas can i plant them directly into the substrate? do they feed from the substarte?
Alex Weisletten :The rocks are real found them at a mountain nearby
Jur4ik: Its the same with any kind of artform everyone has their own opinion. But i wish to learn as this ones my first. can i in any way do any little changes that would improve on the setup or is it too late?

[Shadow]

I would say add more rock, feel too empty to me

By the way you should put piece of plastic and let the water frop on top of the platic. It will help reduce the cloudiness

[Jur4ik]

javamoss in the valley will be hardly visible imo , because of the eleocharis in front of it.

if you want to try it anyway, then plant it directly in to the substrate or superglue the moss to small rocks and place them in the valley.

[adipnayak]

hi all its been a week finally got around to take some shots and am uploading them. can see a few runners on the hairgrass yippieee....
Am dosing brighty k & a tetra product & a friend of mine should be getting me some flourish excel soon.
What else do i need to add please bear in mind i cant get branded items here. are there any diy ferts??

[Jur4ik]

your water looks crystal clear
how have you planted the moss?

[adipnayak]

yes i have you can see a bit of it in the second picture i've directly planted it to the soil and have had no problems with it coming off. i really hope it works out fingers crossed!! tommorow is my second 50% water change...
does the placement of my water inlet and outlet and the co2 diffuser seem ok to you??
any idea on fertz??
my sera co2 indicator(on the extreme right) doesnt seem to work and today its got this white wool/cotton like algae all over it...any idea why?

[Jur4ik]

I would place the filter outlet to the left side pointing to the right to have water movement all over the tank.
you can mix your own ferts using dry powders. they are available on the internet, aquaessentials.com for example. What sort of tetra product do you use?

[adipnayak]

hey now why didn't i think of that!! lol
have positioned the filter outlet the way you suggested.
the tetra product i use is called PlantaMin
Tetra Plantamin - 250ml [070860] - £9.19 : Aqua Essentials
don't exactly know whats in it as nothings mentioned on the packaging.

[Jur4ik]

plantamin contains trace elements.
for the next 3-4 weeks you have all ferts you need. after the tank is cycled you will need extra nitrate and phosphate. NPK fertilizer, there are solutions available and dosing methods such as Estimative Index , you can search the web for them. There is also Tropica Plant Nutrition + available, this contains trace elements as well as NPK and is an all in one solution.

[adipnayak]

Originally Posted by Jur4ik

plantamin contains trace elements.
for the next 3-4 weeks you have all ferts you need. after the tank is cycled you will need extra nitrate and phosphate. NPK fertilizer, there are solutions available and dosing methods such as Estimative Index , you can search the web for them. There is also Tropica Plant Nutrition + available, this contains trace elements as well as NPK and is an all in one solution.

hey there have ordered for a few bottles of fertz including seachem flourish excel from a friend who's coming down from the UK.
How would i be dosing the flourish excel?? How many times a week?

Day10:



Loads of new shoots(dont know if you can see it clearly in the photographs) but not too many runners!! any ideas why would that be. IS it too soon?
Should i add more light currently its 90W nearly 2W/gallon, wanted to start slow and let the plants grow in.
I can add 90 more, is it too soon or should i just go for it and increase the co2??
My neons are usually near the top half of the tank, is it coz of lack of areation? If so how do i change that??

[divadnart]

It is too soon, the grass should start filling in once its established in the tank. 2wpg should be enough for hairgrass. Ime, they do not require high lighting. You should wait another week or 2 to decide about your lighting/co2 decisions. From the look of your pictures, it does not seem you have a drop checker. I would suggest you buying one on ebay or something and also buy 4dkh solution for the drop checker. For the dosing of excel, it is a capful for every 10 gallon. I believe, you can dose excel daily.

[Jur4ik]

Never used excel before, only easy carbo. simply follow the instructions on the bottle

[Shadow]

for excel just follow the instruction, you can dose daily. Do not buy drop checker if you does not plan to inject CO2 gas. Drop checker wont be able to determine excel concentration in your tank.